| Grays of
Dunninald (Cousins of Lord Gray of Castle Huntly, near Dundee) |
Medieval to 1610 | |
| Leightons of Usan | 1610 - 1650 | |
| Allardyces
of Allardyce (Following the sack of Allardyce by the Marquis of Montrose in 1660) |
1663 - 1695 | |
| Scotts of Usan | 1696 - 1811 | |
| Arkleys of Clepington, Dundee | 1811 - 1876 | |
| Stansfelds of Field House | 1871 - Present |
"The Story of Dunninald " (46 pages, 19 illustrations) is
available from local bookshops and by mail-order from:
at a price of £6.00 including postage to the UK and
US$12 including postage to the US and Canada. Cheques must be made
payable to "Dunninald House".
| Grays of Dunninald Medieval to 1610 |
The
Grays are the first recorded occupants of Black Jack, the
first Dunninald , a cliff-top stronghold overlooking Boddin
point. Andrew Gray and his wife Jonet Hume
were granted feudal rights to the land and fishings by the Abbot
of Jedburgh in 1539.
One son William Gray was an early minister of the Presbyterian Church, and schoolmaster of Logie Montrose. Dunninald passed to Andrew Gray whose son Andrew was involved in the Redcastle Affair. This neighbourly feud arose when the aging Lady Elizabeth Beaton of Redcastle took a younger husband, a Gray cousin called James. He fell in love with her daughter Isobel and was thrown out by his wife in 1579. Claiming husband's rights of property over Redcastle, he persuaded the young Andrew Gray of Dunninald to support him with "swords, daggers,guns, lances, axes, bows and arrows" and lay seige to Redcastle. The outer walls soon fell, and Lady Elizabeth was trapped in the tower, where the attackers attempted to smoke her out. Word of the attack soon reached the Scottish government in Stirling who ordered the baillies of Dundee to raise the siege. The ensuing dispute continued without firm action by "the law" for two years, during which time Isobel had a baby and Redcastle was again raided and captured. This proved the last straw and the Crown confiscated the lands of Dunninald in 1581 and gifted them to the Esme, Duke of Lennox. In 1582, the Duke was himself banished from Scotland and Andrew Gray forgiven and reinstated. Black Jack is shown on a map of 1678, but was probably too medieval for the younger Grays, who built the second Dunninald around 1590. About 1600, Andrew Gray moved to Ashby in England. |
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| Leightons of Usan |
Patrick
Leighton of Usan bought Dunninald from his brother Robert in
1617. He was a wealthy Montrose merchant who was a notable local public
figure.
He was accused of robbery by Walter Innes who following a business deal with Patrick was accosted by him in the night and forced to turn out his purse in what seems to have been a dispute over the amount paid in the deal. Whether there had been a genuine mistake over the small change or whether it was an attempt by Patrick to have his cake and eat it, is unknown, as no doubt conveniently for some, the records of the Scottish civil courts have not survived. Patrick left Dunninald to his daughter, Agnes. She married John Erskine, grandson of the laird of Dun, who was a soldier and died during the civil war. Her second husband was Thomas Allardyce. |
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| Allardyces of Allardyce |
The
Allardyces came from Allardyce near Inverbervie. In
1645, during the civil war the victorious royalist army of the Marquis
of Montrose laid waste Inverbervie and Allardyce in their
exasperation after failing to capture Dunnottar Castle
near Stonehaven. James Allardyce died in the
massacre and his brother Thomas was made guardian to his son and heir,
John.
Thomas and Agnes had a son of their own, Robert, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Pearson of Balmadies. Robert Allardyce fell badly into debt and by 1695 was "notoriously bankrupt and utterly insolvent". Dunninald was auctioned at roup, with the estate going to the highest bidder at the moment the sand ran out from a half hour glass. |
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| Scotts of Usan |
Robert
Scott bought Dunninald in 1696 from George
Ouchterlony. He was related to both Patrick Leighton and the
Allardyce's. He was a younger son of the Scott of Logie
family, and twelth in direct descent from Michael Scott the
Wizard. One of his first projects was to build the lime kiln
on the Boddin promontory. Perhaps he used stone
from Black Jack in the building. The lime kiln was a profitable
business, supplying lime to improve the local farmland.
Robert died in 1698 and his brother Patrick Scott took over the estates of Rossie, Craig, Dunninald and Usan. He is supposed to have hidden the Old Pretender in his garden at Craig after the 1715 Rising. Patrick's younger son, Robert Scott succeeded to Dunninald in 1720, and was laird for 60 years. He enclosed and limed fields, turning them from heathland to arable. He laid out the gardens and the beech avenue with its ornamental columns. In 1733 Robert and Anne Middleton his wife had at least twelve children. Archibald Scott inherited in 1780 but in 1787 sold Dunninald to his brother David Scott. David, as fifth son, had gone to India to seek his fortune, and became chairman of the East India Company. He needed a country house of sufficient spendour to reflect his position, and the first grandiose plans for a stately home at Dunninald were laid. He called in James Playfair, Thomas White and Sir John Soane the fashionable architects and designers of the time. Sadly his health did not last long enough to see these plans through and he died in 1805. His son David Scott took over the estate. The younger David became Sir David Sibbald Scott on the death of his uncle, Sir James Sibbald, and moved to the more fashionable south of England. In 1811, he sold Dunninald to Peter Arkley. |
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| Arkleys of Clepington |
Peter
Arkley / Arklay came from Clepington on the edge of the city of Dundee. The
Clepington land and house were sold for development as Dundee expanded,
and now lie beneath the football ground at Clepington Park. Peter
revived the Dunninald Stately Home concept, and called in James
Gillespie Graham, an ambitious young architect. Graham
specialised in the Gothic Revival style and
produced several large and expensive plans. Peter sensibly scaled them
back and built the existing Dunninald House which was finished in 1824.
He died the following year.
His son Patrick Arkley married a Swiss girl, Louise Malan, in 1838. They had two daughters, Lila and Mary. Mary married Charles Smyth from County Londonderry in 1878, and developed an expensive taste for the French Riviera. Lila married Jack Stansfeld of Field House in 1871. |
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| Stansfelds of Field House |
Lila
and Jack Stansfeld had no children, but did much to develop the grounds
around the house. They built the North Lodge and gateway, the terrace
and the aviary. In 1894, the top half of the beech avenue blew over in
a gale, and the trees planted there to replace them can be seen today.
They named as heir a cousin, Johnnie Stansfeld, who married Yolande de Bourbel in 1904. Johnnie was a professional soldier who had won a D.S.O. at Spion Kop in the Boer war aged 21. Yolande and Johnnie followed the army life, serving with the Gordons in Aberdeenshire, India and Egypt. Photographs of him bear a strong resemblance to the soldier depicted on the "Camp Coffee" label. He was killed in the First World War leading his battalion into action at the battle of Loos in France. Yolande was left at Dunninald with Uncle Jack and Lila and her son John. Lila died the following year, 1916 and Jack died in 1928. John Stansfeld served in the army and then married Mary Eardley-Wilmot (Molly) in 1933. He joined a local salmon fishing company, Joseph Johnston of Montrose which fulfilled his twin pleasures of outdoor work and fishing. He was called up by the army in 1939 and sent to cover the retreat at Dunkirk. He was captured at St Valery with most of the 51st Highland Division and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Germany. Poor Molly immediately sent her two boys, Jonathan and Martin to America, where they stayed for the rest of the war. |
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